Heath Huffman

Entrepreneur, Web Designer, Developer

North American Van Lines Review: Bad Movers, Bad Moving Company

Heath Huffman
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09/13/2011 06:03PM

North American Van Lines Review - 3 weeks late plus they stole power tools, lawn equipment, DVDs & kitchen appliances. Horrible Company. I deeply regret using North American Van Lines as our moving company to move us from Kansas City to Seattle.

** START OF UPDATE **

Not only were they over 3 weeks late, but NAVL movers stole over $1000 worth of power tools, lawn equipment, DVDs and even our kitchen blender :(. We had insurance through them and they still refused to pay us back. Evidently, the burden of proving they stole something lies with you. As they packed all our stuff for us, there was no way we could prove anything was stolen. All our boxes were labeled pretty generic, like 'Garage'. Because our movers didn't label any boxes specifically 'Power Tools' they said we cannot prove we had any to begin with.

We have finally given up - its just not worth fighting anymore. I guess that is how they stay in business. They just wear you down.

** END OF UPDATE **

We signed a contract with North American Van Lines to have our belongings moved from Kansas City to Seattle 5 weeks before our actual move date of August 25th 2011. Three days before our move was to begin, I received a call from their customer support explaining they were having trouble finding a driver to deliver our shipment by the 3rd of September (our contracts deadline for delivery).

They asked me if I still wanted to proceed. It being only 3 days before I was supposed to be moved out of my home I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. Who else was I going to find to deliver all our household belongings all the way to Seattle with only a 3 day notice? And at what extra cost if they could?

My wife, our three year old twin daughters, and I arrived at our new home in Seattle on August 31st. I have called North American Van Lines every day since arriving to check on the status of our shipment. It is now almost two weeks late and still counting (even if they got a driver today, it would be another week for them to get here).

My biggest complaint is the robot/zombie customer service reps. I don’t blame them themselves – I am sure they are only repeating what they are told to say. I blame the lawyers and execs who I am sure are the ones who scripted their speeches and developed this wonderful, convoluted, run-around process. Every day my conversation goes like this:

Me:Can you tell me when our belongings will arrive?northAmerican: We are sorry sir, but we do not have a driver at this time.Me: Can you tell me when you might have one?northAmerican: We cannot say.Me: Can you tell me anything? Any idea when? A few days? A week? A month????northAmerican: We cannot say how long. We do not have a driver at this time.

I wish I had looked at some North American Van Lines Reviews before picking them. The last few days I have asked to speak to a manager or a supervisor, only to be transferred to voicemail (4 times now).It is very apparent to me they do not care the slightest about our situation. There appears to be neither a sense of urgency nor any attempt of extra effort to remedy our situation. Their philosophy appears to be:

“You’ll get a driver when you get one. Until then, it sucks to be you.”

I have racked up almost $2000 on my credit card buying pots, pans, air mattresses, clothes, computers, etc. trying to just get by the last two weeks. I run my business from home. My entire home office is still in their truck somewhere in storage. There is a max, one-time reimbursement of $900 that North American Van Lines will pay back, but as you can see, that will hardly put a dent into what I will be paying out for this fiasco. Its only two weeks into it and I have already doubled it.

Here is what really upsets me: I know they can get a driver to drive our shipment – if they really wanted to. I don’t buy this whole helpless thing their customer reps are spinning. I am almost certain that if a friend of North American Van Line's General Manager was in this situation, it would be taken care of immediately.

But I am just a lowly customer who paid out almost $10K from my own pocket for this. This wonderful service and treatment. What do I know?

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 Comments

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The Wife 09/13/2011 11:14PM

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We signed a contract with them to ship our belongings, arriving in Seattle on a specified date. They have passed that date and have no intention of even starting the trip in the foreseeable future. Our truck is still in a storage unit in KC. Why do they have a contract with a date on it if they have no ability to resolve driver complications? Is there only one guy who drives to WA and he's on sabbatical? How could it possibly take this long for a large shipping company to find a truck driver? How long do they expect to keep us waiting? What has happened to our packed belongings sitting in the sweltering heat of who-knows-what storage facility in KC for 3 weeks (and counting)? We are incurring more costs every day. Not to mention our unlive-able living situation. They say it's unlikely to take "months". Well, that's comforting...

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Marcie 09/14/2011 09:08AM

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My family had nearly the exact same experience with our move from Boston to Indianapolis. We signed a contract with a delivery date no later than 7/9. That date passed with the same scripted response that you received. When we were finally given a new date for delivery, we waited excitedly for the truck to arrive. Well, when the truck didn't show up after about an hour, I called North American and it was only then did they tell us that our belongings were still in storage in Boston! A couple of weeks after that we got a new delivery date and when the truck arrived, I nearly cried because I new something was wrong. It was some tiny little truck that couldn't possibly hold our entire shipment. Needless to say, it was another month before we got the rest of our stuff. During this entire time we got the run around and more scripted answers, nobody cared that we each only had 3 days worth of clothes and school was about to begin... It was a nightmare! Now, nightmare part 2 is taking place- trying to get some type of date as to when our damaged goods claim will even be reviewed! They haven't even reviewed it yet.. Scripted response... "to be fair to our customers, we review them as they are received". What kind of BS is that? At least let me know you received it!! Thanks for letting me vent and know that I FEEL your pain.

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Sherrie Holloway 09/14/2011 09:09PM

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Sherrie wants everyone that has ever used this company, with their terrible customer service,to feel free to list your concerns on here... these people have NO CONSIDERATION FOR THE TROUBLES THEY ARE CAUSING PEOPLE, EVEN WITH SMALL CHILDREN!!!! NO SENSE OF URGENCY TO COMPLETE A CONTRACT THAT IS OVERDUE BY ALMOST TWO WEEKS PAST THE DUE DATE TO DELIVER THEIR PROPERTY TO THEM. Now they are out of state with none of their items to use. Business owners have their business equipment in the truck sitting in KC, MO...while they are trying to "work" without equipment...what in the world would happen if this was an important person in "their" life? Like their brother or father? Bet it would get resolved really really quick....I think they need to be on TV as a CALL FOR ACTION to expose their lack of concern...!!!!

Go to the above link to file a complaint with the FMCSA. Also post your complaint on movingscam.com and ripoffreport.com. Also keep all of your receipts and file a delayed delivery claim with them. You can get more than 900.00 for your delayed claim.

NAVL On-Time Pledge:
When North American fails to perform transportation services within the period of time indicated on the Bill of Lading and Order for Service or on an addendum thereto, North American shall reimburse the shipper for reasonable commercial lodging expenses, 50% of reasonable food costs, and other out-of-pocket living expenses resulting from the delay, up to 100% of the linehaul transportation charge, and subject to the following notes:

Note 1: This item applies only to shipments described in Item 102.
Note 2: This item shall apply only for shipments which weigh or are rated at 3,500 pounds or more.
Note 3: This item applies only to shipments transported between points in the United States (except AK and HI); and also between points in the United States (except AK and HI) AND points in Canada.
Note 4: Late pickup reimbursement applies only at origin residence; it does not apply on shipments loaded from SIT at origin.
Note 5: Late delivery reimbursement does not apply on shipments delivered to SIT at destination.
Note 6: This item does not apply on diverted shipments as described in Item 212 (Stopoffs or Diversions).
Note 7: This item does not apply when a delay is caused by conditions beyond North American’s control, including, but not limited to, circumstances as described in Item 114 (Impracticable Operations).
Note 8: When a shipment or portion thereof is lost or destroyed in transit, the provisions of this item shall not, apply to such shipment or portion thereof which cannot be delivered due to such loss or destruction.
Note 9: Reasonable dispatch rules contained in 49 C.F.R. 375.8 shall apply to this item.
Note 10: This item applies only when the shipper submits a written claim for reimbursement to North American within 9 months after delivery of the shipment.

Excellent post Tom! I will be following up on all of these. Thank You!

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Wayne Bieber 04/23/2012 04:38PM

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They moved us and said 4 days storage and 10 days before i get the Items,Well it will be 1 month until I get my things delivered. That is absurd. What should we do in the meantime. If I knew it was going to take that long I would of used another Company. If anyone is moving from Brooklyn do not, do not, use Approved Moving and storage on Kosciusko st. Jason who is supposed to be the GM didn't even care when I told him of the issue and not even a call. Please Please Please don't use that company.

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Paul 07/24/2012 10:04PM

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At the end of the day, North American Van Lines delivered our stuff 3 weeks late. A significant incovenience to our personal and professional lives, but not the end of the world.
The worst part of the move was dealing with the company representatives. Highly unprofessional. Every time we called, North American's representatives gave us the run-around. When we would call to find out about the status of logistics, they would just shrug their shoulders and tell us to call a different company phone number. This happened 8 times. They changed the delivery date at least that many times. We, then, had to coordinate each change with our new Condo Association, since 400 people share the same 2 elevators.
Finally, our stuff arrived today, and we had scheduled the elevator for a 4-hour window to move every thing in ... but they movers could not begin unloading our stuff. Why? Because they needed to be paid first ... with a cashiers check. After dozens of phone conversations with North American reps, no one told us to have a cashiers check ready. In fact, our contract says we can pay by credit card, which we eventually did, but not before several North American reps gave us their typical "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do" baloney.
In short, North American was able to deliver many headaches and excuses, but could not get us our stuff any where near the time the promised. The real shame is the the guys doing the heavy lifting were fantastic. They even took responsibility to solve the problems that corporate headquarters created.

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mark 07/01/2013 01:32PM

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I called several moving companies and only a handful replied and of those only North American showed up. The rep was polite and professional but the quote was much higher than we expected but with no other options had little choice. I rented a truck to move most of my shop equipment from NY to TN and we also brought all of our valuables and fragile items (guns, electronics, etc) with us. All I needed from the movers was to move trunks of prepacked items and the furniture. All of the trunks were labeled what room they were to go to. They arrived on time took a day to load and arrived at the destination quickly. The guys were nice enough and worked hard but that's where the good experience ended.

Numerous items were damaged or missing. After several weeks I can conclusively say that one fan is missing completely another was destroyed and then hidden in a large trash can where we wouldn't find it until later. A set of shelves was destroyed and hidden in another trash can. Other items were removed from the crates they were in and were destroyed. Furniture was damaged by carelessly pushing it through doorways without taking off the door first. After I complained they took off the door but left without replacing it. They left trash everywhere: in a hurry to leave. After several days numerous trunks were missing from the kitchen and diningroom which I eventually found in the garage. They put trunks in the closest place they could find near their truck and I had to move trunks full of dishes upstairs with no equipment after I had paid them to do it. Two mattresses (one very expensive) were to have been boxed by them at an additional charge. They didn't bring any packaging materials so wrapped them in plastic wrap and pushed them on the dirty truck floor as the plastic peeled back. A $3,000 mattress protected by 20 cents worth of plastic wrap!

I wrote to the sales rep to complain but he never acknowledged my letter so I can only conclude that this is normal and they don't care now that they have my money. For me that was the final insult: being ignored, and is the reason for this post. After paying them nearly $13,000 I'd expect not only better service but the courtesy of a follow up to see how things went and certainly at least a response to my complaint after I took the time to tell them what their people did. Thank God I didn't trust them with the most expensive, valuable or irreplaceable items. Looking back I didn't have many options but going forward I will make sure that I'm not placed in that position again. There's got to be a better moving company out there.

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Michael Benner 10/16/2013 11:38PM

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This event shows the bad choice made in choosing a moving company. All this difficulties could have been avoided, if the service of a quality moving company is hired. Always look into the customer reviews on the company before hiring it.